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In light of the tsunami of criticism against Israel's defense against the Hamas rocketing blitz from Gaza, IsraCast has extended the following 'apology' to US President Barack Obama. According to the Wall Street Journal, Washington has suspended the delivery of Hellfire missiles to Israel in response to 'Israel not knowing its place' in the eyes of some U.S. officials. This then, is why Israel should 'apologize' for its military operations against Gaza:

Israel's government and her Parliament are at odds over whether the Jewish state should officially recognize Turkey's responsibility for the massacre of some one and a half million Armenians in 1915. In spite of appeals by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, the Knesset's Education Committee discussed the issue but stopped short of voting on recognition. IsraCast analyst David Essing is of the view that with the Iranian nuclear crisis coming to a head in 2012, it is crucial that Israel will not cause any further deterioration in the already strained relations with Turkey.

'A genocide foretold' - that is how Prof. Irwin Cotler, a former Minister of Justice in Canada and a Member of Parliament, has described Iran's genocidal incitement against Israel when linked to Teheran's nuclear weapons development. At a Bar Ilan University Conference in the Mishkenot Shaananem Center in Jerusalem, Prof. Cotler presented a petition calling on the state parties to the Genocide Convention to honor their international obligation to prevent Iran from continuing on its path of genocide against the Jewish state. In a subsequent interview with IsraCast Prof. Cotler, an expert on international law, told David Essing that he believed Iran could still be stopped from acquiring the bomb.

During the American presidential campaign, Israeli political figures were careful not to make any comment that might be seen as favoring either Barack Obama or John McCain. But now, Israeli officials are again voicing their positions on Middle East issues. This trend will likely continue as Israel's own election campaign gets under way.

Yosef 'Tommy' Lapid, one of Israel's most controversial journalists and politicians, has died of cancer at the age of seventy-seven. After an outstanding career in journalism, Lapid led the Shinui party to an election success in 2003 joining the former Sharon as justice minister. A bitter rival of the ultra-orthodox religious community in Israel, Lapid ran on an anti-religious ticket. After leaving politics, Lapid was appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to head the Yad VaShem Memorial for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Himself a Holocaust survivor, 'Tommy Lapid' was never at a loss for words in taking on what he viewed as anti-semitic lecturers in Britain or those who acquiesce in Iran's threats to wipe Israel off the map.

U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos died of esophageal cancer at the age of 80. Lantos survived the Holocaust by escaping twice from a forced labor camp and was the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to Congress. He was a strong supporter of Israel.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spelled out a series of concessions to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank government. In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, Olmert spoke of lifting some West Bank checkpoints in addition to transferring hundreds of millions of Palestinian tax money to Abbas and seeking a new approach to peace talks. But IsraCast reports that Olmert also stressed that his 'calculated risks' were conditioned on Abbas leading a 'Hamas-free' government.

The world is doing nothing to halt the genocide is again being perpetrated in Darfur - that was the message from Yosef (Tommy Lapid), a Holocaust survivor from Budapest, who now serves as chairman of the Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem for the six million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis during World War II. Lapid was speaking at the annual Holocaust memorial ceremony this week. This is a translation of his address to the people of Israel and the world.

Officials at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, an institution that has played a major role in raising public awareness of the continuing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan and galvanizing Jewish groups on the issue, are frustrated that the killing continues despite the worldwide outcry.